The Adicts Bio:

The Adicts began life as the Afterbirth & The Pinz, in their hometown of Ipswich back in late 1975.. They scored many Indie Chart hits in the Eighties, and are unbelievably still together, and still making great music, with the same line-up Keith Monkey Warren, vocals; Mel Ellis, bass; Pete Dee, guitar; and Kid Dee , drums - to this day.Newer members are Scruff (Mels brother) guitar & Dan on violin. I think we all started for different reasons, recalls Monkey, of their distant origins. Pete and Kid moved to Ipswich from Sunderland were already playing on their own, using pillows for drums in the front room. Mel had just failed the audition for Nick Kershaws band (too tall apparently) and I was a punk without a cause. Exactly what year that was may vary depending on who you talk to. Some say 75, some say 76. I think I have a flyer from March 76, but before that we had played our first show in a scout hut in Aldburgh, Suffolk - not exactly top of the list for all time top punk venues! We strung a rope across the room to keep the crowd back and had a motor bike for a lighting rig. As far as our musical education goes, I think Pete took music at school, and Kid just liked to hit things. I dont know where Mel got his talent from but it seems to run in the family. I still cant play anything. They soon changed their name to The Adicts and became known for their distinctive Clockwork Orange Droog image, which, along with their urgent, uptempo music and light-hearted lyrics, helped set them very much apart from the rest of the genre. We became The Adicts because The Pinz was such a shit name, deadpans Kid. At the early gigs we just used to wear punk clothes, but never anything bought, like those posers who went down to Kings Road. After a while though, black came in and it all became boring, so we started to dress in white to be different, and Clockwork Orange had been a major influence on us, though not for the violence, more the teenage angst The Clockie thing didnt really evolve until about 78/79 Songs Of Praise came out in 1981, reckons Monkey. And the image is an amalgam of many things. It may have been a conscious effort to set ourselves against the somewhat unimaginative appearance of early 80s punk bands or just a perception that looking a certain way might be interesting and entertaining. We got some stick from some of the self-appointed real punk bands for not being punk enough, or whatever, but I dont remember anyone really making an issue of the image other than saying I must be a poof!